Holy Week: A New Job Description
Blessed Holy Week! Depending on what part of the world you live in, you may honor the holiday with dramatic portrayals of the Easter story or you may find yourself wondering if it means anything more than pastel colors and bunnies, as I did while walking through a mega-market here in Colorado.
Holy Week invites us to absorb both the intimacy and immensity of Christ’s death and resurrection. And in that contrast, to experience the dynamic tension of the gospel, a principle that guides every aspect of our calling.
In the biblical accounts of Holy Week, we observe intimate emotions in Christ’s final week of life. We see his tenderness as he served his nearest and dearest—washing his disciples' feet and making sure his mother would be cared for after his death (John 13, John 19). We find him “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” as he prayed in the garden before his arrest (Matthew 26). The intimacy of these moments reveal a Savior who understands the human experience.
He understands your experience and the complexity of the roles you fill.
As we witness the intimacy of Jesus' final days, Holy Week draws us into the immensity of his resurrection. The apostle Paul describes the scope of our new life in Christ:
“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals, and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.”
(Colossians 1:15-20, The Message)
In this conversation about women, work, and calling, I relish words like spacious and expansive because they expand the constricting frames that culture, our faith communities, or even we, as women, confine ourselves to. What a beautiful contrast to realize that “everything of God finds its proper place in him.”
Our work is to live in God as “all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe…get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies.” How’s that for a job description?
As we honor Jesus’ suffering and celebrate his resurrection, I pray you experience the intimacy of a relationship with Christ and embrace the immensity of life - and work - in his Kingdom.
Joanna Meyer | Women, Work, & Calling Founder